E TRACTS NUMBER SEVEN 

.B78 

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The President's Policy 

War and Conquest Abroad 

Degradation of Labor at Home 



z/lddress by 
HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL 

PRESIDENT AMERICAN ANTI- IMPERIALIST LEAGUE 

At Masonic Hall, Washington, D. C. 

January I 1 , 1 900 



CHICAGO: 

AMERICAN ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE 

JANUARY, 1 goo 






E 115 
63484 ' 37S 

PLATFORM OF THE 
AMERICAN ANTI- IMPERIALIST LEAGUE 

We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends 
toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret 
that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm 
that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the 
consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is "criminal 
aggression " and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our government. 

We earnestly condemn the policy of the present national administration in 
the Philippines. It seeks to extinguish the spirit of 1776 in those islands. We 
deplore the sacrifice of our soldiers and sailors, whose bravery deserves admiration 
even in an unjust war. We denounce the slaughter of the Filipinos as a 
needless horror. We protest against the extension of American sovereignty by 
Spanish methods. 

We demand the immediate cessation of the war against liberty, begun by 
Spain and continued by us. We urge that Congress be promptly convened to 
announce to the Filipinos our purpose to concede to them the independence for 
which they have so long fought and which of right is theirs. 

The United States have always protested against the doctrine of international 
law which permits the subjugation of the weak by the strong. A self-governing 
state cannot accept sovereignty over an unwilling people. The United States 
cannot act upon the ancient heresy that might makes right. 

Imperialists assume that with the destruction of self-government in the 
Philippines by American hands, all opposition here will cease. This is a 
grievous error. Much -as we abhor the war of "criminal aggression" in the 
Philippines, greatly as we regret that the blood of the Filipinos is on American 
hands, we more deeply resent the betrayal of American institutions at home. 
The real firing line is not in the suburbs of Manila. The foe is of our own 
household. The attempt of 1861 was to divide the country. That of 1899 is to 
destroy its fundamental principles and noblest ideals. 

Whether the ruthless slaughter of the Filipinos shall end next month or next 
year is but an incident in a contest that must go on until the declaration of 
independence and the constitution of the United States are rescued from the hands 
of their betrayers. Those who dispute about standards of value while the 
foundation of the republic is undermined will be listened to as little as those who 
would wrangle about the small economies of the household while the house is on 
fire. The training of a great people for a century, the aspiration for liberty of a vast 
immigration are forces that will hurl aside those who in the delirium of conquest 
seek to destroy the character of our institutions. 

We deny that the obligation of all citizens to support their government in times 
of grave national peril applies to the present situation. If an administration may 
with impunity ignore the issues upon which it was chosen, deliberately create a 
condition of war anywhere on the face of the globe, debauch the civil service for 
spoils to promote the adventure, organize a truth-suppressing censorship, and 
demand of all citizens a suspension of judgment and their unanimous support while 
it chooses to continue the fighting, representative government itself is imperiled. 

We propose to contribute to the defeat of any person or party that stands for 
the forcible subjugation of any people. We shall oppose for re-election all who in 
the white house or in congress betray American liberty in pursuit of un-American 
ends. We still hope that both of our great political parties will support and defend 
the declaration of independence in the closing campaign of the century. 

We hold with Abraham Lincoln, that "no man is good enough to govern 
another man without that other's consent. When the white man governs himself, 
that is self-government, but when he governs himself and also governs another man, 
that is more than self-government — that is despotism." "Our reliance is in the 
love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which 
prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands. Those who deny freedom to 
others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it." 

We cordiallv invite the co-operation of all men and women who remain loyal 
to the declaration of independence and the constitution of the United States. 

[Adopted by the Chicago Conference, Oct. 18, 1899.] 



THE PRESIDENT'S POLICY 
WAR AND CONQUEST ABROAD 

DEGRADATION OF LABOR AT HOME 



In the discussion on which I now enter, I pass by the moral con- 
siderations which are incident to any comprehensive treatment of the 
Philippinean war, and I address myself to the questions of business and 
labor in which the country is much concerned. In some of the aspects 
of life, ethical and moral questions occupy the highest, place, but the 
public mind cannot be directed to ethical and moral questions when 
the masses are not in the enjoyment of a satisfactory degree of 
domestic comfort. That degree of comfort can be found only where 
there is also a good degree of public prosperity, which itself must rest 
upon a public policy that secures constant employment and reason- 
able wages for the laboring population. 

My inquiry for the moment is this : Will the subjugation of the 
Philippine Islands and their incorporation into the Union as equal 
states, or their attachment to the government as colonial dependen- 
cies, elevate or depress the laboring population of the United States ? 

I omit the consideration of other interests. They are all subor- 
dinate. A public policy which secures to the laborers of the United 
States constant employment with remunerative wages is the best secur- 
ity, not perfect security — that cannot be had — but the best security 
attainable for the prosperity of all classes. 

It has been the policy of one political party, to which a portion 
of the rival party has assented, to protect the laborers of the United 
States against the products of the cheap labor of other countries, and 
then, as in the Chinese exclusion bill, to protect the American laborer 
against the actual presence of the unpaid laborers of other countries. 
Shall that policy be reversed ? 

The inhabitants of Luzon, as an example, must be treated by us, 
\\ hen we are called to decide upon our policy in that island, either as 
capable of self-government, or as incapable. The population of the 
island is not less than 4,000,000, or 95 persons to the square mile, 
not excluding the portion that is covered by water. If these people 
are an uncivilized people, as it is alleged, and a warlike people, as 

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warlike as they are, how many troops will be required upon a territory 
as large as the states of New Hampshire and Maine combined, to 
keep this vast multitude in subjection and in peace ? Or, how many 
troops will be required to maintain military stations within ten or 
twenty miles of each other over the forty-two thousand square miles 
of territory ? How much time will be required for that degree of 
peace when ten soldiers can march ten miles in safety, in any and 
every part of Luzon ? 

How much time will be required to bring into view one native of 
Luzon who will in truth say : " I vote with the army that wears the 
uniform and carries the flag of my country," meaning the flag of the 
United States ? 

If the inhabitants of Luzon are incapable, as they are represented 
to be by the President and his supporters, if they number four million 
or rive million, and are a warlike people, as we know they are, are 
there any considerations that should lead us to make war for the con- 
quest of such a race ? We may overrun the island, but its subjuga- 
tion to a condition of quiet peace under the law is an impossibility. 
And this is the entertainment to which we are invited and upon the 
theory that the inhabitants of Luzon are an incapable people. The 
difficulties which are thus indicated will be magnified not less than 
two-fold when we contemplate the subjugation of the entire group. 

Turn now to the other aspect of the case. Assume that they are 
what they are, a capable people, and that they are competent for the 
work of self-government ; that they have received the ideas that are 
set -forth in our Declaration of Independence. Assume, also, that the 
war which they are now carrying on against us is by them waged, as 
they think, in defense of the principles of justice, of equality, of the 
right of self-government, indeed : then, I inquire, how long is this crusade 
to be prosecuted by us, in the hope of conquering a quiet peace ? 

If they are a people capable of self-government, then, upon the 
theory of the President, they are in the right, and we are in the wrong. 
If the Filipinos are a capable or an incapable people, who can say 
that this war is wise and just ? By what process of reasoning can it 
be taken out of the catalogue of national follies and crimes, and who 
can defend successfully those who are responsible for the inauguration 
and prosecution of this criminal war ? 

If the Filipinos are incapable of self-government, if they are 
living in a semi-barbarous state, who rises to say that it is the part of 
wisdom for us to continue a contest for the subjugation of a people 
whom we cannot accept as political associates? If they are what 

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the President maintains they are, then there is no avenue through 
which they can be permitted to become a part of our government 
under the existing constitution. 

Our territorial system is not a training school for the reformation 
of criminals, or for the enlightenment of half-civilized races ; but our 
territories, when created, are in the quality of the inhabitants equal 
to the duties of statehood, wanting in numbers only. The Philippine 
Islands furnish inhabitants adequate for ten states. If we hold them, 
they are with us as states or as vassals. Whoever, and in this word 
•whoever "I include the President of the United States, whoever 
accepts them, either as equals or as vassals is the enemy of the 
republic. 

The war is carried on upon the theory that the Filipinos are 
incapable of self-government. Everywhere and always there is the 
admission implied, if not expressed, that if the Filipinos were capable 
of self-government it would be a crime in us to arrest or to thwart 
their enjoyment of the right. Put, assume their incompetency, and 
I ask again, to what end is the war prosecuted ? To the general 
public there can be no other end in view than the satisfaction that 
may be derived from a brutal victory of arms over an inferior people. 
But the war itself, however viewed, is only a step toward evil results 
of greater magnitude if the President's policy should be sanctioned 
by the country. Those results I am to consider. 

This question I put to the defenders of this war. What is the 
end that you seek ? Is it the vassalage of these people ? If so, then 
you are the enemies of the republic and the betrayers of the prin- 
ciples upon which the republic thus far has been made to rest. 

If you intend to endow them with statehood in the American 
Union, then, whether they are a capable or an incapable people you 
betray the Union to a fatal ending. Does any one believe, that with 
safety, we can receive into this Union the millions of Asia, who have no 
bonds of relationship with us, except that they are of the human family ? 

The President and his adherents say : " We will prosecute this 
war until these people are subdued, and then we will tell you what we 
propose to do with them." They have not disclosed their purpose to 
the American people. There is, however, one alternative that we can 
comprehend. The American people ought not, on the one hand, to 
accept from the Philippine Islands ten states foreign in language, 
compact in religion, alien to us in the habits of life ; nor, on the 
other hand, ought we to consent to any system by which some are to 
rule and some are destined to obey. 



Terror-stricken by the foreshowing of the questions that are to 
arise in case of success in war, the imperialists are about to submit 
an amendment to the constitution, by which colonial vassalage shall 
be made constitutional. Thus, by a simple process, they propose to 
end the republic and create an empire. Do you ask for the evidence 
on which this statement is based ? I answer, events are their masters. 
Questions are arising which- cannot be met, and, therefore, they 
must be avoided. The laborers and producers of this country must 
be deceived or cajoled, or the cause of the President is lost. Whenever 
it is decided, and the President says that it is already decided, that 
Porto Rico and the Philippines are within the jurisdiction of the 
United States, then the country may be called to accept the provision 
of the constitution as operative in the islands, or the imperialists must 
show how it may be avoided. 

" All duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the 
United States." 

The novel theory is raised that the islands may be treated as 
American territory for certain purposes, and as a foreign territory for 
other purposes. We are to enter upon an open market policy in the 
east. The commerce of Russia, England, China, the states of conti- 
nental Europe and all the rest, from Japan to Australia and New 
Zealand, is to pass in and out of the ports of Porto Rico and the 
Philippines on a free trade basis, while as to the United States, not a 
cargo of coffee, rice, sugar, hemp, tobacco or fruits can be brought 
from the islands into our continental territory, except upon the pay- 
ment of such duties as might be exacted upon the importation of like 
products from Brazil or the British West Indies. It is apprehended 
by the administration, and with sufficient reasons, that the supreme 
court will say : " The islands, being within the jurisdiction of the 
United States, the duties, imposts and excises must be the same as 
in the country generally." Such a decision is not only required by 
the constitution, but there can be no freedom of trade between the 
islands and the mainland unless the duties, excises and imposts are 
the same. 

For the purpose of government the District of Columbia is a 
cipher, yet no one has ever broached the notion that it was possible, 
under the constitution, to establish one system of customs and excise 
duties for the district and another for states. 

The administration must apprehend what everybody else foresees 
as certain, namely, this : Wherever the supreme court shall reach 
the conclusion that the islands are within the jurisdiction of the United 

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States, the court will hold also that the duties, imposts and excises 
must be the same in the dependencies as in the states, and that the 
freedom of trade between Manila and New York must correspond to 
the freedom of trade between New York and Boston. Such a decis- 
ion means full freedom of trade between the islands and the states, 
and it means much more. The inhabitants of the islands, from 
Luzon to Sulu, slave and free, are made citizens of the United States, 
and no puny legislative scheme, such as has been proposed for 
Hawaii, can bar them out. 

What does citizenship mean ? First of all, it means the right, 
the unrestricted right, of movement, of travel, of residence, the right 
to labor everywhere, in everything, and in competition with everybody ; 
the right of purchase of every form of property, from a boy's marble 
to the stateliest mansion in Fifth Avenue. 

In fine, by one unfortunate treaty, the work of an hour, we have 
called into existence ten million American citizens, all of another 
race, all ignorant of our language, ignorant of our traditions, and yet 
they are to be endowed with the rights of citizenship, or they are to 
be held in a condition of vassalage. If the supreme court shall 
prove faithful to the ideas and doctrines on which it has acted through 
a long century, a condition of vassalage will be impossible. Freedom 
and an equality of rights for. these ten millions and for all their 
descendants through the centuries of the future, or an amendment to 
the constitution by which colonial vassalage shall be authorized as 
fundamental law of the republic, is the alternative which the policy of 
this administration opens to the country. 

The laboring classes should have in mind the certain truth that 
free trade between the colonies and the states will follow the estab- 
lishment of a colonial system, and without much delay. Such has 
been the policy of England. 

The question before the country will be this : Shall the laboring 
.and producing classes of America be subjected to a direct and never- 
ending competition with the underpaid and half-clad laborers of Asia, 
or shall the republic of America be transformed . into a colonial 
empire with like consequences to the laboring classes ? This, the 
gravest question ever submitted to men, is the question before the 
country today, but happily a way of escape is before us if the way 
can be accepted now. 

The way of escape must be accepted now. There must be no 
delay. In the month of November, 1900, the future of the nation 
will be decided. Republic or empire ? That is the question, the 



only question of any importance before the country. If any false 
financial or industrial policies are entered upon by a new administra- 
tion, adequate corrections may be applied in four or eight years, but 
a policy by which Porto Rico and the Philippines are incorporated in 
the union, or attached to it as vassal dependencies, can never be 
reversed until this republic is numbered among the states that have 
fallen through an unjust and criminal greed of empire and power. 

To me the contest of 1900 is not doubtful. We are summoning, 
and summoning successfully, the laboring and producing millions from 
every field of industry, and while we shall appeal to them upon the 
higher considerations of justice, of duty, of regard for the rights of 
others, we shall not hesitate to appeal to the selfish interests of those 
who are most concerned in preserving for themselves the share of 
independence and power which the laborers of America have 
enjoyed. 

Some of the supporters of the administration, particularly some 
of the newspapers, have scouted the assertion that the annexation of 
Porto Rico and of the Philippines can work any competition with the 
laboring classes of the United States. 

I ask : Are we to compel millions to submit to our authority 
and exact allegiance from them, and then deny to them the right to 
travel and to labor in the country to which they belong ? Are we to 
extort from them contributions of money in peace, and exact service 
of them in time of war, and yet deny to them the privilege of visiting 
the capital of the country that they serve ? 

These promises of security to the laboring populations are vain. 
The acquisition of these islands, in whatever form the acquisition 
may be made, will be followed by freedom to travel, freedom to labor, 
freedom to pursue every industry, freedom to practice every art, and 
in the next generation, if not earlier, freedom to take an equal part in 
the government of the country. At this point I interject an observa- 
tion : If the President's claim that these islands are now in our 
jurisdiction is a valid claim, and if judicial decisions are of any value 
as precedents, -the inhabitants of Porto Rico and the Philippines 
are citizens of the United States, and already entitled to the freedom 
of which I have spoken. 

The attempt to engraft a colonial policy upon the republic is 
beset with difficulties, with perils, in every direction. This adminis- 
tration, elected as a protectionist administration, is following the lead 
< if Kngland in what is called an open-door policy in trade, and to 
what end ? 



In the treaty for the partition of the Samoan Islands we agree 
that English and German products and manufactures are to in- 
admitted free of duty, into the islands conceded to the United States. 
That is to say, we stipulate for free trade between two countries and 
a portion of the territory of the United Stales, and yet duties are to 
be levied upon everybody else and everywhere else. How does this 
treaty run with the constitution, or is the constitution to be made " of 
none-effect " with the Declaration of Independence ? Or how is 
security to be taken that goods so entered in the Samoan Islands free 
of duties may not be reshipped to San Francisco, and to other parts 
of the continent as coastwise trade ? 

We are demanding an open door to all the markets of China 
and heralding the demand with a menace of war. If we establish 
our tenancy in the Philippine Islands can we press a demand upon 
China, and close the Philippines to the Chinese ? And if not to 
China, how about England and the rest of the world ? Where is our 
open-door free-trade policy to end ? And with what results to Ameri- 
can labor and American industries ? If we establish our tenancy in 
the Philippine Islands, do not the islands become an open door for 
the free ingress of the Mongolian race ; peoples in no way dis- 
tinguishable from the present occupants of the islands ? If the islands 
are treated as of the United States, then the United States becomes 
the receptacle of the Mongolian race. The thousand islands are so 
near to each other that passage from neighbor to neighbor is a jour- 
ney of minutes or hours only, and a police of the islands to prevent 
immigration into them, or migration from island to island is an 
impossibility. Thus does the administration invite the country to a 
policy by which these islands are to become an open avenue through 
which so many, and as many as may choose to pass over, are to have 
an opportunity to pass over to this continent. 

On what ground and for what reasons have we excluded Chinese 
Mongolians from the states and territories of the American Union ? 
Forthis, and this assuredly — that they outnumbered our millions many 
times over, and that in labor contests our laboring classes would be 
broken down, impoverished and ruined. That was our defense, and 
a sufficient defense for a policy which otherwise was indefensible. 
But, now by a course of indirection on which the administration has 
entered, that bar which was wisely set up is to be broken down. 

When this country shall realize the truth that the perils of which 
I am speaking are not imaginary, but that they are inevitable in some 
degree of magnitude, and when the administration shall be forced to 



admit the existence of these perils, there will then be set before us 
two ways of escape, and I assume that the resources of statesman- 
ship cannot furnish a third. 

For a long twelvemonth the anti-imperialists have been the advo- 
cate of a way of escape, and to that way they adhere. They claim 
that Cuba, that Porto Rico, that the Philippine Islands, either as one 
state or as several states, may set up and maintain independent 
governments, guided, if such shall be their wish, by our friendship 
and protecting hand. For this and for this only, for this is the extent 
of our demands, and the aim and end of all our doings, we have been 
arraigned as the enemies of the country by General Otis, in Manila. 
and by the President in America. On the issue so raised the judg- 
ment of the country will be rendered in November next. 

The country has a right to know the object, the specific object, 
for which the war is now prosecuted. 

The congress has not spoken. The President conceals his pur- 
pose, but, from the circumstances, it may be inferred, in part at least, 
with unerring certainty. Ht intends to prosecute the war until the 
Filipinos are subdued. This is announced. We demand peace with- 
out delay, and without submission on the part of the Filipinos. If 
the outcome of the war shall be victory and the abject submission of 
the Filipinos, their exercise of the right of self-government must 
depend upon our opinion of their ability to govern themselves. Such 
is the policy and the purpose of the President. It cannot be the pur- 
pose of the President to admit the Filipinos to the right of self- 
government, as that admission must bring the war to an end at once, 
and it would be admission also that the war is unnecessary and unjust. 
Thus is the proof sufficient that the President intends to hold the Phil- 
ippines as subjugated possessions. 

Our claim is that the Filipinos shall be free at once and set up 
such a government as may be agreeable to them and independently of 
any dictation by us. This plan so presented to the country, in the 
presence of the perils that are incident to the acceptance of the Phil- 
ippines either as colonial possessions or as prospective states, will 
compel the administration imperialists to present a counter scheme. 

It is affirmed, with a show of probability, that a scheme has been 
prepared or contemplated ahead}-. 

The scheme must be this: 

An amendment of the constitution by which the United States 
may be authorized to acquire and to hold colonies, and to exercise full 
and exclusive jurisdiction over them. Thus is the republic to be 
transformed into an empire. 

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Nothing less will meet the exigency in which the administration 
will be involved. 

Fortunate it is for us that the question of an amendment to tin- 
constitution must be delayed, and that the question arising on our 
demand takes precedence in time. 

Our issue is made up for November next, and on that issue we 
expect a controlling vote from the laboring and industrial classes, if 
not indeed a unanimous vote, which is our reasonable demand in the 
circumstances that exist. We shall be told that the laborers need not 
fear competition, and that the laborers of America are so intelligent 
and expert that they may defy competition. The experience of the 
country is answer to these delusive promises. The Chinese will pur- 
sue employment and attractive wages the world over, and they become 
imitative workers in every branch of industry. Of this we have 
knowledge from experience. I now repeat what I said of the Chinese 
on a former occasion, and as long ago as December 28, 1898. I then 
said: " They can defy competition, and that peculiarity is the only 
adequate defense for our hostile legislation. They can manage a 
bank or run a laundry with a certainty of success that cannot be fore- 
told of any other people, whether English or American or Hebrew." 

The laborers of this country have now an opportunity, and the 
only opportunity they can ever have, to put an end to the scheme of 
establishing a colonial empire, to be followed by the degradation of 
the laboring population through competition with the laborers of the 
east and the products of the cheap labor of the east. Whatever may 
be the purpose of the President, his policy contemplates the establish- 
ment of a colonial empire, and the downfall of the labor class, which 
now is a necessary and intelligent force in the civilization of America, 
and in the progress of the world. 

There are those who affect to excuse the President upon the ground 
that he is in the hands of men abler than himself. At this point I 
am with the President in not accepting that excuse. It is now many 
months since I gave the President credit for signal ability in the work 
of transforming this republic into an empire. Since that time his con- 
duct and career have strengthened my conviction that he is supreme 
over all the men who are around him, whether of the cabinet or of the 
members of the republican party in congress who give him their 
support. 

By the criminal law every man is responsible for the natural con- 
sequences of his acts. This rule is applied in affairs of government. 
Nor can any public officer plead good motives as a defense for bad 

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doings, and in an intelligent magistrate good motives and bad doings 
can never be associated. The President accepted the war with Spain 
which he might have averted and yet have secured the freedom of 
Cuba in the next six months. Such was the statement of Mr. Wood- 
ford, our late minister to Spain. 

The protocol was dictated by the President; the treaty was 
extorted from Spain through a commission that was subservient, dem- 
ocrat as well as republican, and without a show of resistance; the 
treaty was ratified by his persistency and the aid of such appliances 
as he could command; and, finally, his proclamation of power and 
purpose, of December 21, 1898, became a declaration of war without 
the authority of congress, as early as the fifth day of January, 1899, 
by its publication in the city of Manila. It is now eleven months 
since war flagrant was begun, and it is now eleven months since Gen- 
eral Otis first, and the president afterwards, refused to listen to terms 
of peace or to concede an hour's delay in the prosecution of the war. 
In these eleven months of hostilities the war has been the President's 
war. Congress has not been consulted, and the country has not had 
an opportunity to speak. 

An account current cannot now be written, but trustworthy gen- 
eral statements may be made. 

Thousands of young men have fallen in the skirmishes, or died 
in the morasses, or lingered in the hospitals to a fatal ending, and 
thus grief inextinguishable has been sent into thousands of otherwise 
happy homes. Of these, and many unknown, I mention Lawton and 
Howard and Logan, and others whose names are familiar to the 
country. What return has as yet been made for these sacrifices? 
What return is promised by those who defend the war? Some say it 
means an enlargement of the field for missionary undertakings, as 
though the propagation of any form of religion can justify war and the 
sacrifice of human life. 

Some say it means more markets and more trade, forgetting that 
human life is more valuable than merchandise, and that the lives of 
our young men already sacrificed cannot be compensated for by the 
extension of markets for liquors and cotton cloths. Some believe 
that new markets can be gained by making enemies of mankind. 

Some are animated by a vindictive spirit, and they urge on the 
war that the Philippines may be punished for refusing to submit to 
our demands. And some there are who fear that they may be counted 
as "Little Americans," and they vainly imagine that something of 
honor may come to them if America shall be recognized as a world power. 

12 



And some there are who favor the war because they have out- 
grown the Declaration of Independence and the preamble of the con- 
stitution, and they are urging the country on to the same conclusion. 

If the war should be closed in February our expenditures will 
have then exceeded $200,000,000, and of the deficiency of $51,000,- 
000 now called" for, a large part will be required for the support of 
the army during the current six months. 

The vote upon that appropriation bill will be a test of the 
strength of the war spirit in the present congress, and it will be so 
treated by the country. Whoever can justify a vote for the prosecu- 
tion of the war until July next can justify his votes for the further 
appropriations until President McKinley has accomplished his pur- 
pose — the subjugation of the Philippine Islands. That defense will 
be required of democrats and republicans alike. 

Thus far what has been accomplished? I ask. Commissioner 
Worcester boasts that two regiments can march anywhere in Luzon. 
That is not a condition of peace. It is a condition of war. 

We hold a number of posts in Luzon and in other islands. 
Wherever we are in force there is peace, and there are pretended 
friends ; wherever we are not in force there are enemies and threaten- 
ings of war. The ground that we occupy is under our rule, but all 
else is foreign territory. 

In Luzon we may have one soldier to every square mile. In the 
other Islands we may have one soldier for every five and twenty 
square miles. In Luzon the natives number ninety-five to the square 
mile, and in the group they number seventy-five. The President 
demands military rule for the Philippines. One foreign soldier to 
rule and seventy-five natives to obey. And yet the President tells us 
that liberty, equality and justice go with the flag. 

Our demand is always the same and it must be often repeated. 
Our conclusion, from whatever quarter we approach the subject, 
must always be the same. This is our demand : Allow Cuba, allow 
Porto Rico, allow the Philippine Islands to set up governments for 
themselves, free from any dictation by us. 

This is a policy of justice ; a policy of peace. This policy ends 
the war in the Philippines; it ends the sacrifice of the youth of Amer- 
ica ; it puts far away the perils to which the laboring populations are 
now exposed; it guarantees to us perpetual friendship of three new- 
born republics, and it relieves us from the suspicion that we are to 
cooperate with England in an attempt to subjugate the weaker states 
of the world to the domination of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

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Additional copies of this tract may be had upon 

application to 

W. J. MIZE, Secretary of the American Anti-Imperialist 
League, 517 First National Bank Building, 
Chicago. 

It is requested that applications be accompanied by 
postage. 

All persons in sympathy with the object of the 
League are requested to record their names with one 
of the Secretaries. This does not imply any pecuniary 
obligation. Funds are desired, however, for carrying 
on the work, and the League will be glad to receive 
subscriptions of any amount, large or small. 



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